The New York Times Wants to Be Parenting Destination With New Site

The Times sees the topic of parenting as an opportunity for a whole new site, and a whole new subscription product.

The New York Times is launching a new independent site around parenting.

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Politics isn’t the only subject the Internet has managed to blow out of all usable proportion or even reality. New parents looking for sound advice online are likely to leave more afraid than when they started any search.

Enter The New York Times’ newest independent vertical, NYT Parenting. It’s launching today in beta, full of reports and essays on advice and guidance on the myriad issues parents can face in the first five years of their children’s lives, and their lives as parents.

Youngna Park, who a year ago joined the Times as executive product director for Parenting after working for a children’s app developer, said about a year of research prior to her hiring took place before the company decided parenting was the right subject for a new vertical. Meaning one that could create a reader habit, offered the Times a competitive advantage and had the potential to be a stand-alone subscription business. The business model is similar to that of Times’ Crosswords and Cooking, but differs in that both of those subjects were already much more associated with the Times and its coverage. Parenting has been left largely to books and, for a time, magazines (Meredith is the only publisher left with a dedicated title) and in recent years, blogs and online parenting groups operated on Facebook. Parenting is a much more recent addition to regular coverage at the Times.

“We looked at a lot of parenting sites and books and talked to a ton of parents, and there was a real need for quality information, but it was really poor,” Park said. “People were ending up in these Google rabbit holes and Facebook forums, but they didn’t know who to trust. Our goal is to be that source of information that people feel they can really lean on.”

Another issue noticed by Park, along with Jessica Grose, who joined the Times as lead editor for Parenting after being the founding editor of the now-defunct Lenny Letter, is that much of the parenting advice out there now takes on tone that modern parents (mainly Millennials) don’t appreciate.

“Parents said they felt like there wasn’t a lot of content that spoke to them like grown-ups,” Grose said. “[They want articles on] how their lives have changed, that give them actionable information about their relationships and their work, that take on the transformational aspect of parenting.”

So, that’s what the new site will aim to offer. The rollout will use social channels like Facebook and Instagram, where Parenting has a new handle it launched in March in tandem with the launch of its Parenting newsletter. The newsletter sounds like it was a success, as Park said sign-ups (who will all be invited to register for the Parenting site) have exceeded expectations by about five times. She declined to give a specific number.

While Parenting will start off as a free site, and also start off free of advertising or branded partnerships, both of those things are likely to change once the subscriptions start to grow and the data is culled. How Parenting evolves, in its coverage areas and community offerings, depends on what Grose and Park find out during the beta stage. The ultimate goal is to have Parenting be another stand-alone paid subscription service, like Crosswords and Cooking, and one that will hopefully bring in a new group of Times readers. The paper has been using brand offshoots like the podcast “The Daily” to enter new markets, geographic and demographic, to help meet its ambitious goal of 10 million digital subscribers by 2025.

“It’s definitely a goal to get an audience that isn’t the core [audience] interested in the Times,” Grose said. “We want to show how Times journalism is useful in a lot of ways, not just politics and breaking news.”

Social Studies

You might not know who Beanie Feldstein is now, but the breakout star is poised to be a name synonymous with comedy. ⁣⁣
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Beanie stars in @OliviaWilde's directorial debut "Booksmart," opening today. The film has been dubbed the female "Superbad" — which is somewhat ironic since Beanie is actor Jonah Hill's younger sister. ⁣⁣
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“She is sort of like Paris Geller meets Lisa Simpson with a little bit of Sandra Bullock in ‘Miss Congeniality.’ I liked the idea of showing that a girl can be silly and loose with her friends and also be really intense and kind of biting at school,” Beanie said of her character, Molly.⁣ ⁣
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The actress also said that Wilde’s take on the story is “fresh and honest” and she was “whip-smart” in her directorial debut.⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣⁣
Report: @leighen⁣
📸: @jgreenery
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#wwdeye
#booksmart
#beaniefeldstein

It looks like Kris isn't the only momager in the Kardashian-Jenner family. ⁣
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Kim Kardashian is setting up son Psalm West for success in the fashion, beauty and home sectors — at the ripe old age of two weeks. ⁣
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On May 18, Kardashian filed a trademark for her son for “Psalm West” under her company, Kimsaprincess, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ⁣
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Now all of the West children have trademarks filed under their names. ⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣
Report: @laylailchi
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#wwdfashion⁣
#kimkardashian⁣
#psalmwest

Natalie Portman, Uma Thurman, Kate Moss, and Roger Federer at the Moët & Chandon in France. ⁣
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The intimate dinner celebrated the 150th anniversary of its Brut Imperial blend, at its just-reopened Château de Saran overlooking the vineyards of the Champagne region in the east of France.⁣
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There were fireworks, towering pyramids of Champagne glasses — plus vines and VIPs as far as the eye could see. ⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣
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Report: @fleurfleurette
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#wwdeye
#moetchandon

Shailene Woodley has no desire to keep up with the superficial standards of Hollywood.⁣
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“There’s sort of this sense of machinery that can happen to people in the limelight, and I was very fortunate also at a young age to work with so many incredible, strong women who were already a little rebellious in their own ways against the machinery that can be this industry.” ⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more.⁣
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Report: @leighen ⁣⁣
Styling: @thealexbadia⁣
📸: @ninebagatelles⁣
Production: @jgreenery⁣
Beauty: @keithcarpenterhair & @tyronmachhausen ⁣
Market: @andrew_shang & @elmercer⁣

The Prada Group is going fur-free. ⁣
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The company will no longer use animal fur in its designs or new products, starting from the spring/summer 2020 women’s collections. ⁣
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Creative director Miuccia Prada explained that the company “is committed to innovation and social responsibility,” and that its fur-free policy “is an extension of that engagement.”⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more.⁣
Report: @luisazargani
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#wwdfashion⁣
#prada⁣
#furfree

Soccer superstar Lionel Messi is launching an apparel collection. ⁣
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The Argentine athlete, who captains both FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team, has partnered with MGO, a brand portfolio company whose chief creative officer is Tommy Hilfiger’s sister, Ginny Hilfiger, to create Messi.⁣
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The premium lifestyle brand with “a sporty edge” will be primarily men’s wear but will include a few women’s tops as well, according to Hilfiger.⁣
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Hilfiger said despite his fame and wealth, Messi “is a really humble, generous and kind person and a great role model. He has been involved since we started talking to the Messi family two-and-a-half years ago when we presented the idea to them. ⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣
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Report:⁣ @jeanpalmieri
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#wwdfashion⁣
#LionelMessi ⁣
#FCBarcelona⁣
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Once upon a time in Cannes, @ellefanning had another major red carpet-moment in @Dior.
Tap the link in bio to read what growing up in Hollywood was like for the youngest-ever jury member at Cannes.
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#wwdfashion
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Shailene Woodley is an all-in or not-at-all kind of woman — leading her to get the reputation as the hippie of Hollywood. ⁣
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She views her experience of “breaking out,” if you will, as a kind of shepherding by older, wiser female costars along the way, women she says helped her steel herself against the superficial demands of the industry. ⁣
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One of those women, @reesewitherspoon, spoke to us about Woodley's inspiring performance on "Big Little Lies." “Her portrayal of a woman who is both a survivor of sexual assault and a single mother raising her child alone in a new community is one of the most truthful performances I’ve ever seen. There is a scene in episode two of this season where Jane explains her assault to Ziggy that moves me to tears every time I see it," Witherspoon said. ⁣
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Woodley's acting choices have earned her a reputation for being a talented and utterly professional one to watch, but it’s her candid, unabashed activism in real-life that people are taking notice of. ⁣
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“I think it’s very easy for all of us to be comfortable in our bubbles and to be comfortable in the lives of privilege that a lot of us live, to be comfortable in our own space, in our own opinions, in our own forms of what we think is right or wrong, black and white, justice and non-justice — but ultimately until every single person on this planet feels like they are treated like a proper human being, I’m not going to stop because more than anything, I’m just somebody who deeply feels,” Woodley said.
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣
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Report: @leighen ⁣
Styling: @thealexbadia
📸: @ninebagatelles